The Perfect Egg Timer iPhone App Review

Clean Plate Charlie's adoration for food and drink is rivaled only by a love of the iPhone and its ability to simultaneously improve and destroy each and every meal.

In the effort to help our readers wade through the inexhaustible sea of food, drink, and dining-related applications available for use on the iPhone and iPad, we will offer semiregular reviews of food apps.

This week's inaugural review is of the Perfect Egg Timer. Details about the application -- and images -- after the jump. Know of an app that we should check out? If so, be sure to leave the recommendation in the comments section.

Start by measuring your egg against the screen on your iPhone. Use the finger-pinch technique to adjust the size of the egg.

Why it's worth it: This is cheap, ridiculously easy to use, and the results of my egg-cooking experiment were a success; the egg came out perfectly cooked, as advertised. Though this is a very simple app, there's a kind of "window to your egg yolk" that lets you track the firmness as it cooks, in case you want to bail early for a softer yolk.

Drawbacks: This calculates times only for soft- or hard-boiling eggs; if you're looking for timing for overeasy or poached, you're out of luck.

Once you determine all of your relevant data -- starting egg temp, size, your altitude (your phone's GPS can determine this for you if you don't know it), desired firmness of yolk -- you're ready to go.

The professional's opinion: While my grasp of tech generally amounts to "I like it; it's easy" or "I don't get it; I hate it," my fianc

These cooking instructions are the only ones offered. There's no post-cook cooling directions, so, uh, just immediately dump the hot water and put the eggs in the fridge for a while after the timer goes off and you're good to go.

Best for: Someone who tends to do a lot of drinking and cooking, or anyone else who may otherwise flake out while performing a basic cooking task. This will help to keep you on point and focused and hopefully reduce the odds of having to toss out a dozen eggs that have been boiled to the consistency of rocks. Perfect for college students.